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Quantum dots in brain could treat Parkinson's disease

11 July 2018

By Clare Wilson

TINY particles called quantum dots reduce symptoms in mice primed to develop a type of Parkinson’s disease, although tests in people are some years away.

Quantum dots are just a few nanometres in size – so small they become subject to some of the strange effects of quantum physics. Unlike most medicines, that makes them tiny enough to pass from the bloodstream into the brain. Byung Hee Hong of Seoul National University in South Korea and his colleagues wondered if they would affect the molecules involved in Parkinson’s.